Blue Robes
by popcornfairy
Summary: The political talks with their species were rarely done in person and instead happened over the extranet or by a single VI hologram that was inside their embassy. Even when they did meet in person they were always concealed, and hidden within the dark robes they wore. A ME one-shot AU, Elder Humanity.
1. Meeting You

**A/N: Just a one-shot not really planning to go anywhere with this , I had this idea and I couldn't stop thinking about this. So I wrote this. It was a lot of fun. I like Vorlons ( from Babylon 5 ) and I like ME just wanted to see if I could smash the two together.**

**Edit: Went back and cleaned up some mistakes. It's funny every time I reread this I keep finding new ones.**

* * *

Tevos often found herself walking past humanity's embassy. There was something about them that caught her curiosity in a way she hadn't felt since she was in the earlier maiden years discovering the galaxy for the first time. She'd been through almost every possible scenario in her life, uplifts, rebellions, wars, heck even a machine uprising but this was different. There was an air of mystery about them and she figured if she hadn't become a councilor she would have defiantly liked to have been a detective, perhaps in a different life.

She walked to the humans embassy and again found the door locked and closed. They had requested their embassy to be a closed off one, there were no windows or a balcony in their room. She found it strange that even though that had given them exact instructions on the room's dimensions, they rarely used it. Entire years would go by, and the room still didn't maintain a single occupant since the turians made first contact with their species.

Now that she remembered, first contact with humanity was the most interesting one she had come to witnessed. It happened almost fifty years ago when a patrol fleet was chasing away a fleet of pirates off of the salarian colony Eden Prime. The fleet was pursuing their quarry into an unknown sector of space on the other side of the Arcturus Relay when the two fleets were never heard from again. Within in a few days and investigation fleet entered the unknown quadrant of space and they too disappeared for a few days. They were later seen again unconscious in their ships over Eden Prime. No one remembered what happened except for a single turian that kept saying " By the spirits, it's full of stars", over and over again. He was mostly confused and very disoriented, but he was able to explain they had made first contact with a race of beings known as humanity and that they had sent him back to tell the others of their interest in becoming a citadel species.

Afterwards a lone ship arrived at the citadel and it too was the strangest thing she had ever seen. Scans of the ship revealed it was made out of a material completely unknown to the rest of the galaxy and even odder yet it was completely solid, there were no insides. It was as if someone had made a spaceship out of stone, it certainly looked like it was. It looked like freshly blown glass, with its smooth swooping curves, but it was harder than diamond. C-Sec officers sometimes swore they had heard smooth harmonic music emanating from it, as if it was singing to them. She often wondered if that was true, but then again, she often wondered if anything about humanity was true.

The political talks with their species were rarely done in person and instead happened over the extranet or by the single VI hologram that was inside their embassy. Even when they did meet in person they were always concealed, and hidden within the dark robes they wore. They didn't know what they looked like. At least with the quarians you had a basic idea of their body shape. The robes worn by humanity's ambassadors obscured their figure and the inside of their hoods were darker than a shadow. One of her colleagues had once joked that if you were to place your hand in the robe you would surely fall in and would never be seen again.

She wasn't entirely sure what she was thinking, but out of sheer curiosity, she decided that she was going to have a one on one conversation with a human, something personal maybe. She really didn't understand their species and there was nothing known about them. She was curious. Just when she was about to press the signal button the door swished open. There within the darkness was a robed figure, simply standing there looking towards the door as if it knew she was coming.

"Oh, uh.." She cleared her throat.

It continued to look towards her. Its robe was a warm blue with gold accents. She was actually surprised by this, the last human she had seen had light brown robes with white accents, this was a different human. Or at least she thought it was, they could all be the same being underneath those robes.

" I don't believe he have met, I wasn't made aware that there was a new ambassador " she said

" Winter must make its way for spring " the robed being said as it tilled robed head. Just like the being, it's voice gave little to describe what it was. It spoke instead with two voices in unison, one female and the other a male voice. The voices sounded like that of a turian.

She had no idea of the meaning behind its words. Well, that was to be expected, they never spoke more than a few words and when they did it was cryptic. Although she suggested that it may have been a result of their machine translation. Researchers had said that their language was so complex it was almost impossible to fully understand their meaning. This was going to be difficult. She was begging to wonder if coming was a mistake.

" Is there a problem?," It asked inquisitively

She stepped into the room and approached the human. It was taller than her. " I was wondering if you could perhaps join me for a walk among the gardens "

" Why?, " It asked. It wasn't in a condescending or an aggressive tone. It actually sounded like it wanted to know why she had asked such a thing from it.

" There is so little that we know about your people, I was hoping that we could learn about each other." It felt odd talking to the human. She had no idea what it was thinking. Was it annoyed or angry, she couldn't tell.

It stood there looking at her for a moment until it finally spoke. " Yes "

She smiled slightly, " Yes to the garden walk, or the cultural exchange "

" Both " was its only reply.

The other ambassadors in the citadel looked on at the strange scene. Tevos never thought she was self-conscious, but here standing among the human and walking within the garden made her feel a little on edge. The others watched the human in interest, for many of them it was the first time seeing it.

She and the human only talked a little on their way to the garden and from what she could gather the new ambassador's name was Anderson. It was much different from the other, more stoic Udina that was here before. She realized that she preferred this new ambassador over the previous one. Udina was ruder, and more cold-hearted. She figured that if it was still here she would have never been even able to have entered the room at all. It would have ignored her.

She decided she'd start with small talk and then move on to something more interesting " So, how old are you?" She asked casually. She wondered if they were a long-lived species like her people, or if they were like the salarians or the turians.

It didn't reply

" Oh I'm sorry, I don't mean to offend, age in our society is associated with wisdom. I know in some societies its impolite to ask such a thing."

It turned to her " greater than a white star, but less than the beginning."

" You can't be older than a star that would make you billions of years old. That isn't possible" She really only understood the first part of its reply.

"10 to the 2,640,000" was its only reply.

" What? " She didn't know what it was getting at.

" The odds that you exist, right now"

She thought about the number 10^ 2,640,000. It was such a small number.

" and yet here you are, Impossibility is a word with an empty meaning " It turned away from her and continued walking.

She quickly followed after it. Surprised by what it had said. Could it really be that old?. That would make them older than the protheans and even older than the citadel.

" Then that must mean that you knew the protheans, what happened to them? "

It stopped in its tracks and it slowly turned towards her. " They were devoured "

She blinked " I don't understand "

It lowered its robed head. It almost looked saddened. " You will " it replied solemnly

She wasn't sure what it meant, but asking it that question seemed to have caused it some distress. She decided that she wasn't going to press the subject any further. She continued talking to it and it continued to give her vague answers. An hour later is stated it had business to attend to and it left to return to its embassy.

Over the next few days she found herself dwelling over what they had talked about. She was thinking it about over her council meeting sessions and during her break hours until finally she couldn't put up with it any longer. She deiced that she wanted to know everything that she could about humanity, but when she made her way back to humans embassy, Anderson was not there. She returned to her own chamber on the citadel and asked every contact she had to scrounge up as much information on the humans they could find, no matter how obscure. The next day she was sent a file of over a thousand different sighting of the robed figures across history.

There was one of them during politics talks they had after first contact with humanity, that was to be expected. She kept searching. She then found a photo of when the quarians had asked for the citadel's help with the geth uprising. In the background there was a blue robed figure standing in the back of the crowd. Her eyes widened. The looked at the next photo, it was the meeting with the krogan warlord before the rebellions and there it was again a blue robed figure hidden within the shadows. She looked at another, the rachni wars, and there it was. Then there was the day the Asari started the citadel council, and there the figure was again. She sat back in her chair. Maybe what Anderson had said was true. She continued looking. She found minor mentioning of them within prothean caches. There were even some paintings of them from unknown tribal species that were long since extinct.

She let all the information seep in until she realized something profound. They only appeared during important historical events, and nothing else. They were watching history as it happened. She remembered what Anderson had said to one of her questions. " Time is a tree, not a line, we can see branches within the tree but cannot climb to them."

She wondered why they made themselves known now, and she became frightened by what she thought next. What big historical event could they be waiting for?


	2. Time Stretch

Mondays, First Day, Day of first work, Last Rest, no matter what the day was called it was always the same annoying and tiresome day full of meandering missteps and accidental behavior. There must have been some sort of cosmic imperative that made the first day of every species dedicated work schedule the worst. In turian culture this particular day was called Ephesus and Sparatus hated this day the most. It's not to say that he was always at his worst on these days. He was an organized and a focused turian. He prided himself on that. Days like these would go by with nothing more than a minor headache but today was that special kind of crummy day that really only happens once in a lifetime.

* * *

On his way to the hearing he was bombarded and stopped by almost every news reporter on the station hopping to gather the scoop on the rogue spectre. Most were shewed away by c-sec but there where a few persistent ones that caught up with throughout the day. The prospect of Saren being a rouge spectre was huge news given that it was Nihlus the accusation he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Saren was well respected and so was Nihlus, and given their relationship with each other, for one to make such claims it was taken seriously so much to the point that it caused the ruckus in the Hierarchy. Who was right? Who was wrong? There wasn't enough evidence. Even worse the media ate up every word and bit of drama from the council hearing, and the entire ordeal was quickly becoming top news on every station.

When he finally made his way to the council chamber he had released that he'd forgotten his omnitool. It was a foolish mistake, but he disliked having to travel all the back to his office as he'd have to continue dodging ambitious news reporter after ambitious news reporter. Once there he found his desk in a mess from the previous night. The Hierarchy wanted every bit of information on the subject as they could gather, and so the higher-ups wanted his opinion. And so he was left typing a 24 page report on the subject. It was almost completed all he needed to do was to save the document. He reached out and just when he was about to press the button the screen flashed and just like that the report deleted itself.

Sparatus twitched is mandibles. He quickly took his omnitool and bit back the urge to flip over the table and curse the heavens. He hadn't touched a single key and know two days of hard work was gone. He regained his composure. He didn't have time for this, he was already late to the hearing. So he left as quick as he could. He left his office and made his way to the elevator. Inside he keyed in citadel tower and he waited for the door to close, but before it could electric sparks came from the terminal and the door remained halfway opened. He pressed the elevator button again and received more static and broken elevator music and then it proceeded to do absolutely nothing.

Sparatus sighed, spirits, now he'd have to take the stairs. Of all the days the elevator could have broken why did it have to be today. He crawled out the elevator and proceeded to take the long way to citadel tower. He stood in front of roughly 20 flights of stairs. In his younger years this wouldn't have been a problem but now he had this odd aching in his joints he knew he'd surely feel this one in the morning. He could only imagine what could be happening in the chamber now. He was never late and the one day he was it was the most important meeting as well.

When he finally made to the chamber he turned and saw Tevos. She was accompanied by a blue robbed being that called its self Anderson. Behind it was another human in grey with red and white accents that he never met before. It walked behind them quietly as the two in front talked to each other. Humanity, the more he thought about them the more he realized that there was off bout them but he wasn't sure why. They never petitioned the council for anything, there space was practically off-limits as ships that wandered their never return, and they were worse shut-ins than the hanar or the elcor combined. As to why they were so interested in the wider galaxy now of all times had him wondering what they were up to. Tevos had told him about her current theory about them and from what he had heard he was sure that she had either gone crazy or had drunk a little too much. Humanity being older than the protheans was ridiculous, at most he reasoned that the humans was a race of xenophobic aliens.

The human in gray turned to him and slowly bowed his head. Tevos cut off her conversation with Anderson. " Sparatus, we were just about to start"

He silently thanked the spirits. He must have gotten up earlier than he needed to today.

Tevos frowned slightly " You look, exhausted."

" Had to take the stair up from the presidium, the elevator was out of commission. "

She raised a brow.

"Interesting" replied the human in gray.

She crossed her arms and then smiled. " Of course it was, and I suppose I simply teleported here. "

" What are you implying "

"I remember when I first entered the matron stage, It was about 300 years ago, and I wanted to feel young again and so I became a stri-"

"Stop !" Sparatus shouted "I'm not going through a midlife crisis, spirits, I know what I saw" He really didn't need to hear that story again. She had told him it before and ever since then he could never look at her the same way again.

" What ever you say Sparatus"

The human in gray took a step forward, and Tevos noticed that she hadn't told her turian friend who it was. She gestured towards it "This is Shepard, it assisted Nihlus in his investigations. He's a close friend of Anderson"

The human nodded and said "He can hear, see, and speak, he understands."

Sparatus regarded the human for a moment, and like all the other times he had spoken with them he didn't have a single clue what it meant When he had first spoken to one of them he found their way of speech curious but now he found it irritating. If these aliens were as advance as they made themselves out to be a simple translator should not be difficult for them. Yet another reason he disliked them, they seemed arrogant to him.

"Well I kindly thank the human government for their help" he forced himself to say. This human helped Nihlus? If it was any other alien he wouldn't have cared but humans rarely interacted with the rest of intergalactic society. They never shared their technology, culture, or anything about themselves and now all of a sudden they cared. He wasn't buying any of it. There must be an ulterior motive.

They continued and were later joined by Valern and upon arrival they took their places in the chambers. The humans left but Anderson remained and watched the hearing from one of the higher floors overlooking the entire room. Nihlus presented a geth recording of Saren commanding the geth and speaking to another Asari which Tevos noted was Matriarch Benezia. It was everything Sparatus wasn't hoping for.

" This evidence is irrefutable, Saren will be stripped of spectre stasis immediately"

" I'm more interested in these reapers, what do you know about them" asked the salarian councilor.

" The reapers are an ancient race of machines that wiped out the prothean fifty thousand years ago" replied Nihlus "The geth believe they are gods and they view Saren as a prophet for the reapers return"

" What is this conduit Saren was talking about " asked Tevos.

" I don't know yet, but it's why Saren attacked Eden Prime, he thinks it will bring back the reapers"

Sparatus just realized that his day was getting more irritating by the minute. He couldn't believe what he was hearing and even worse Tevos seemed to look like she was begging to believe it. What had the galaxy come to he thought to himself. "Listen to what you're saying, Saren wants to bring back a race of machines that wiped out all life in the galaxy. It's impossible. It has to be. If they were real we would have found evidence of their existence all ready."

"The reapers are just a myth Saren is using to control the geth" stated Valern. Sparatus was releaved, it seemed like only the two of them had some sense.

"I don't know if the reapers are real or not " he said " But Saren thinks so and that's bad enough already. If the council permits, I'll track him down and bring him to justice"

Tevos seemed to agree and so did Valern. He wasn't against the idea himself as he couldn't foresee any other coarse of action. If they sent a fleet after Saren it would surely ignite a war in the Terminus Systems but the spectre couldn't simply be allowed to roam free he was basically a terrorist at this point. But he couldn't help to note the past history between Saren and Nihlus and wondered if Nihlus truly was the best one for the job. In the end it was ultimately decided that Nihlus and his crew would catch Saren.

After the hearing was over he and everyone else went their separate ways. He was on his way to his quarters as that report needed to be rewritten all over again. On his way he met Shepard by the elevator. The clocked being turned with its empty black hood pointing in his direction. It was eery how still the being could stand. He was beginning to wish that he had taken the stairs instead he really didn't want to get stuck in a fortune cookie conversation with the creäture.

"Foolish" was all it said.

"Excuse me ?" he snapped but then he realized that he wasn't entirely sure what the human was referring to.

"The truth points to itself and yet you refuse to see it, I find it foolish" the male and female voice spoke in unison but its voice lacked the static or reverberation of translators and instead it was smooth and in many ways a little too perfect in pitch.

"You mean the reapers " He said with air quotes "Don't tell me you believe that nonsense as well."

" You do not understand " It's reply was just as vague as its form . It then turned and left without a saying another word.

He contemplated stopping it but then decided against it. He wasn't even sure he could keep up a coherent conversation with the being and he wondered how Tevos managed to befriend Anderson in the first place.

On his way to the hearing he was bombarded and stopped by almost every news reporter on the station hopping to gather the scoop on the rouge spectre. Most were shewed away by c-sec but there where a few persistent ones that caught up with throughout the day. The prospect of Saren being a rouge spectre was huge news given that it was Nihlus the accusation he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Saren was well-respected and so was Nihlus, and given their relationship with each other, for one to make such claims it was taken seriously so much to the point that it caused the ruckus in the Hierarchy. Who was right? Who was wrong? There wasn't enough evidence. Even worse the media ate up every word and bit of drama from the council hearing, and the entire ordeal was quickly becoming top news on every station. He stopped in his tracks and realized that something wasn't quite right. It was an odd feeling like he had done all this before.

He shook that feeling away but he soon realized that he left his omnitool behind. He returned to his office and their he saw still half-finished report. He reached out and was about to save it the file proceeded to delete itself. As he began to fume he released that he had done all of this before and that everything from yesterday was repeating itself. But that wasn't possible such things only happened in vids. But he wasn't so sure. It just felt so surreal. He left his office and made his way to the elevator and sure enough it was broken just like it was last time. He then took note of the time, in a few minutes he would meet Tevos in citadel tower. He raced up the stairs and just like he had predicted Tevos, Anderson, and Shepard were leaving the elevator.

"Sparatus we were about to start" said Tevos

By then Sparatus was already panting.

"You look exhausted"

"Thats because I took the stairs, the elevator was broken remember" he told her.

Tevos turned to Anderson but it was Shepard that spoke up behind them " Interesting"

"The elevator is working fine, how do you suppose we got here" Now that was a little different from before maybe just maybe-

"I remember when-"

"Stop, We are not going there" he said louder than he had expected.

"Your acting really strange today is everything alright" she asked

"You ever have the feeling that you've done something before"

"No not in particular, why ?"

" It's just a feeling " He shook his head, it truly seemed like he was the only one that feeling this way. He had once seen a show about days that repeated themselves over and over but those were works of fiction this felt all too real.

The day progressed the same as if did before with the trial meeting and the talks of Saren, the geth, and that reaper nonsense everyone seemed to be believing in. But it wasn't entirely the same. Sometime he'd say something different and someone would respond differently and then everything would return to exactly the way it was before almost as if the entire universe around him was on some-sort of winding track. There would be a bank here or a turn there but the destination was always the same. Near the end of the trial he decided that he'd simply stay as it felt strange to say the same things as he did before. Afterward, Sparatus made his way to the elevator and met the cloaked gray and white being again. It was Shepard it was just as cryptic as it was before and so Spartacus didn't really focus on what it was saying. Later he returned to his quarters and hoped that maybe it was a dream or that tomorrow would be different.

The next day Sparatus checked the time and silently cursed himself. It was still the same day. It was happening all over again just like it did before but this time he was completely sure that the day was looping again. This was the second time. He wasn't sure what to do as nothing in his entire life had prepared him for something like this and for a moment he had a sudden sinking feeling of complete helplessness. He pushed that feeling away and decided that by the powers that be he would make this day different from it was before and he was going to start with that self-deleting report.

Like a predator stalking its prey, he carefully inched towards his desk making sure that he touched nothing of any real importance. He looked on in anticipation, the report in all it's 24 page glory stayed motionless on his hollo-screen almost as if it was eying his movement and silently challenging him to make his move. He could almost hear it say "Come here and just try to save this I'd love to see you try". His eyes narrowed and in a one single quick movement he lunged forward and pressed save on his keyboard. Five slow agonizing seconds passed as his desktop computer contemplated on saving the paper and then a small little file popped up on his desktop. Sweet Success, he nearly jumped in the air with happiness. He stood with his shoulders held high knowing that he had triumph over what ever malevolent force was toying with him today even though it was a meager success.

Just when he was about to leave with screen flickered and his computer decided to shut itself off.

"No"

It was almost as if those same malevolent forces had seen his triumph display and decided to whittle down his hubris for when the computer reawakened the file and along with everything else on his computer was completely wiped. Now if it was any normal day he would suspect that someone had hacked his machine but with the time loop and all he couldn't help but feel that someone or something else was to blame for all of this. In a fit of rage he flipped the table, he wasn't going to be beaten not if he could help it.

He went straight to the citadel tower via the stairs and found Tevos and the two human in the same place they met before just when Tevos was about to speak he spoke for her.

"Yes, I now I look tired, I took the stairs because the elevator was down and I can tell its working now, and no Im not in a midlife crisis and please don't tell me of your younger days"

Tevos stepped back in surprise as Sparatus had just took the words and by extension a few of her own thoughts right out of her own head.

"Look your probably not going to believe this, but I've done all of this before. Meeting you here, the hearing, literally everything."

"Interesting" repeated the human. They were really the only true constant. No matter what little change he managed to incur the humans always said and did the same things.

Tevos never saw him as the joking type and by the he spoke and held himself told her that he definitely believed in what he was saying. "Are you feeling well?"

" I'm fine" Although he beginning feeling that what he just said may have been a lie.

She regarded the two humans the one in red, white and gray and the other in blue and then thought for a moment, placing her hand to her chin and after a while. " Lets just say you are in a timeloop then wouldn't that mean you could technically do anything you wanted without any real repercussions?"

"I am not going to test that theory, not with the luck I'm having today and besides i just want it to be tomorrow"

She shrugged "That's all I have to offer" she continued on towards the council chambers and he begrudgingly followed her. By now he knew every word spoken by heart and frankly by that time he was tired of being here but he couldn't just go home not without a practical excuse and he figured having an existentialist crisis definitely wasn't one. As soon as it was over he rushed out of there and left as quickly as he could. He met Shepard again and he said the same things he did before and the rest of the day played out exactly the same. He returned to his quarters tired with the day and everything and decided that in the next time loop he'd might have better luck.

The next day was the same day and by then Sparatus didn't care anymore. He slept the entire day ignoring calls and searching the extranet on how to escape his trap in time. Like he suspected he found nothing. He had long since given up on trying to save that report and he no longer worried himself with the hearing. The ended and the it again bur this time he decided that he'd do something that he always wanted to do when he first visited the citadel but never really had the heart to do it in public.

Bacchus was met with a bizarre site and for the first time in his long career in c-sec officer he was actually caught of guard. There sat the turian councilor in the center of the presidium lake on a crudely built raft reading a datapad and taking in the pristine atmosphere. On his head was a large straw hat and a shirt which he swore was from an Asari tropical resort merchant shop. In his hand was a glass of high-grade brandy. He raised his glass towards him and took a sit. The last few hours of the day consisted of most of c-sec trying and ultimately failing at getting the councilor back to dry land as most of the turians there didn't now how to swim.

The next few cycles consisted of relaxing the day away until eventually that grew tiresome as well. The novelty quickly died out and right about now all he wanted more than anything else was to see the true light of tomorrow. After a day of leisurely ignoring his duties he happened to meet Shepard again walking toward humanities embassy and in a single instance of perfect clarity he realized exactly what was wrong the human. This Shepard had only a white stripe and was missing the red. If it was anyone else he would have thought that they would have had a change in cloth but in all the years in which he knew Anderson we had never changed his robes not even once. He placed a hand on its shoulder but when he did the being didn't turn around.

Instead the world around grew dark and the voices and background noises of the citadel began to shade as if they were underwater and the next thing he knew the human was gone and he was floating in the depth of perpetual emptiness.

" Took you long enough " A smug male voice resonating from within the nothingness.

He turned and saw no one " What is this, what going on " he shouted to the darkness

"Shit" the voice said, it sounded angry "Great now I completely ruined the ambiance"

In the distance he saw a light and having no elsewhere to go he followed it. There he found a hollo-desk and a creäture playing Kepesh-Yakshi online and from what he could tell he was loosing badly. The being he saw was what he described as a fury brown-skinned male Asari. The being had hair on his face and his upper lip and on his head was a cap. It looked up at him.

"Can you believe this I swear this guy's using hacks"

Sparatus stood dumbfounded unsure of what he should do or say next.

The being raised its brow in manner that he'd seen Tevos once. "That's awfully rude, you welcome someone into your own little pocket of space and they don't even have the curtsey to say hello, kids these days"

"Were are we, and how did you get here" He asked completely ignoring the creature's commentary. He turned to gawk at the perpetual nothingness that surrounded the two of them. The light from the hollo-desk barely pierced the darkness.

"Wait, wait, I almost forgot " he replied and the creäture snapped its fingers. Confetti and streamers fell from the sky and this annoying music began playing. "Congratulation you just beat your predecessor's record"

"What ? "

"It only took you 45 cycles to find me. You should pat yourself on the back the previous guy nearly took a hundred. Maybe the next one will be as fast as O'neil."

" Just hold on a sec, what in the name of Palaven is going on. And will you please stop that music. It's really annoying"

The creature frowned and slumped in its chair and said something unintelligible. The being snapped his fingers again and the music, confetti, streamers and everything else was gone. The two of them now sat on soft leather couches in a rather nice looking apartment. He nearly broke his neck by how fast he turned his head to survey the new surrounding.

" How are you-"

"Welcome to my abode, and before you say anything the stains on this carpet are from the previous owners " He picked up a datapad " Linron just became a dalatrass. She looks shady. Don't you think she looks shady. 100% shady" he turned the datapad over so that Sparatus could see.

Sparatus blinked and clasped his hands together in a sudden realization that made his heart sink. " I'm dead aren't I and this is Tartarus "

The being began to laugh. " Okay, that never gets old. Look you're not dead, I brought you here to talk to you in a serious man to er- turian conversation. You are a turian right? "

Sparatus nodded. Although he found himself a little angry at the being. Everyone in the galactic community knew of the turians.

"Good. Sometimes, I swear I forget these things."

"What are you"

"Me" the being gestured to himself "I'm human, this form is just an image that your mind can comprehend. My true form and my true voice would be difficult to interact with. Look, I'm going to skip the pleasantries, You can blame me for the shifts in time and everything else too." he said smiling

Sparatus wasn't sure how he was able to do what he said but after what happened of today with the time loops he was willing to believe in anything. "Why?"

"Think of it as an exercise, a lesson in understanding."

"Understanding what ?" he was beginning to sound like the Shepard now. Maybe he actually was a human

"Whats hiding in plain sight" remember what Shepard said "The truth points to itself, you need only to look at it"

"I don't understand, can't you just tell me what I'm missing, why do all of this"

"One, because it's funnier this way" He replied completely ignoring Sparatus's glare. "Two, I can't it's against the rules, If I do that then I'd get the banhammer and we can't have that. I mean I'm already overstepping tons of regulations just talking to you like this"

The human reached to the desk and picked up another datapad and handed it to him. "Think of it as a gift for your troubles, but in all honesty if it was Jack that contacted you she probably would have sent you to some unknown quadrant of space first and then make you take a two year journey to get back home or something like that"

Sparatus looked at the datapad on it were a few files sent under Shepard's name and an extra file of Sparatus's self-deleting report. "Were did you get this ?" he asked

The being leaned back and gave a sly smile and snapped his fingers.

Sparatus awoke and found that he had fallen asleep on his desk. He remembered having the strangest dream. He sat up a saw that the datapad had fallen out of his lap and on to the ground. Odd he didn't remember falling asleep with it. He picked it up and saw in large white letters on it string.

* * *

**I'll be keeping my eyes on you. I think we'll be meeting again real soon.**

**\- Joker**

**PS - You should really take a look into those "reapers " oh and Shepard says hi. **

**PSS – What's at the top of the Citadel anyway?**


	3. En Media Res

He was dead, or at least he should have been. Instead he floated in the endless expanse of eternal darkness. Where was he? The sound of his own inner thoughts echoed out into the distance. Oh that's right. His name was Nihlus. Nilus Kyrik. He was on a mission on Eden Prime when he ran into another spectre, with mentor Saren. He remembered, from the corner of his eye, the muzzle of pistol. That's right his old friend had killed him with gunshot through the head. Then why was it that he was still here, was this the afterlife? He wasn't one to believe in such things. He thought, more calmly than he had anticipated.

A soft blue light appeared in the distance and slowly grew in intensity then suddenly a voice spoke. The voice sounded neither masculine or feminine and it was both calming and threatening, how odd.

"Nihlus."

"Am I dead?," He asked absentmindedly.

"Yes."

A sense of dread boiled within him. He really was dead.

As if sensing his discomfort the voice continued "Not for very long, your mind has been preserved, you will be made hole once more. I have parted away with a piece of myself to return you to the living. There is much we need to do."

He was being brought back to life, how and why?

"Who are you what do you want from me."

The voice was quite for a moment.

"I have many names but they others call me Shepard. You need my help and I am here to give it. That is all. When the time comes I will tell you more but for now trust me. I am on your side" it spoke its voice was now sterner than before.

Shepard? That name sounded familiar, he had heard it before. It was a human name one of only two he recognized. Yes. Memory slowly began to return. He was the human that accompanied Anderson the only other human that made itself known to the galactic community.

The oddity of his situation dawned on him. He was neither a skeptic nor a believer to humanity's true nature. At heart he was a realist and as a spectre he had traveled to a great deal of many places. Stumbled across a great deal of very odd things whether they were animals or strange circumstance so it was easy for him to see things as they truly were and humans were unsettling. A dangerous enigma. No one knew what they were capable of and they seemed to know more than they were letting on.

Slowly the senses in his finger and toes began to return although he still could not see them.

"What is this place?"

"Home. We slipped you through the strings and…I caught you in your fall." It sounded dissatisfied with its word choice as if the very words themselves were not enough to describe what it truly wanted to say.

"This is your home-orld?"

There was nothing more than the expanse of the void. Nothing could survive here. Not even synthetics.

The light grew warmer.

"Our world has long since come and gone. We no longer live there. You are in our new home, this void is for your own protection your mind could not handle its true form and in your weakened state I would not dare put an image in your mind."

"Why do this, humans have never cared about anything, why are you helping me?"

"I believe you should be given a chance. Our purpose is to safeguard the development of your people so that perhaps one day if you took the right path you could join us. There are forces out their, which you will soon come to lear that seek to destroy you. The others do not believe we should interfere. I think otherwise, after all are we not your guardians?"

Dark forces? Was it that ship back on Eden Prime. He thought back to the Salarian husks, the geth and the betrayal of his old friend. Was he behind all of this, surely that couldn't be. Unless, there was something controlling him. Or at least he hoped so, how else would his old friend, his old mentor betray him. There had to be something more. At least now he could figure it all out but the thought of revenge didn't settle entirely well with him.

"I want to give you fighting chance, however you need guidance. Through your voice and your actions you will be a ripple of change in these still waters. Only as a united force can the galaxy survive this threat."

"Why bring me back to do all of this. If you are as old as you make yourself out to be can't you just give us weapons? Can't you fight them yourselves" he paused, "Not that I'm complaining about getting a second chance at life but, it'll be much simpler."

The voice gave a small chuckle. Guess humans underneath all the enigma had a scene of humor. He was thankful for it. It made them seem less alien.

"Indeed it would. It would end everything. Our technology would destroy the very foundation of your society and quite possible your entire civilization if misused. A chance at second life, to try again is all I can give you and your people."

"Let us hope he does not squander it," said another voice Nihlus did not recognize.

Slowly the light began to fade and slowly his senses returned. When he awoken, he found himself in a pool of his own blood on Eden Prime.

* * *

In the middle of it all far from any known space. Two humans existed in the space between spaces a realm beyond time and space. A place where only those of higher understanding could inhabit, a place where the flesh, blood, rock or stone could not exist. Here form had no meaning.

You are putting yourself in a great deal of risk if he dies he will take a piece of you with him and it'll be gone forever. – Ashley

Silence.

And he will die someday. Sooner rather than later –Ashley

Silence.

I know. –Shepard

* * *

**A/N: In case anyone was wondering I deleted the previous chapter. It was a going to be apart of a specific plot line but I never got around to really completing it and frankly I sorta had a better idea on how to follow through with it. So yeah.  
**


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